


Lucifer Is Not A Nice Guy. Or; Why Chloe Decker will not get a recap of Seasons 1-3.

by CJ_R



Series: Essays [2]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Essays, Meta, Metafiction, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 16:49:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJ_R/pseuds/CJ_R
Summary: An essay about unconscious sexism and why gratitude is not love within the context ofLucifer.





	Lucifer Is Not A Nice Guy. Or; Why Chloe Decker will not get a recap of Seasons 1-3.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! This essay originally appeared on my Tumblr page and I've cross posted it here to AO3 for archival purposes as well as organizational. Please be aware that this essay has enjoyed some minor edits for clarity since my original post. Please enjoy!

So, I’ve been running into a lot of commentary and fanfic that goes something along the general lines of, “I can’t wait for Chloe to find out everything Lucifer’s been through for her!” The reasoning behind this seems to be a mix and match of the following

\- If she had just understood Lucifer’s perspective of the last three seasons, she would have had a better reaction to her partner literally being the Devil.

\- If Chloe knew about certain key plot points; Malcom’s bullet, Lucifer killing himself for the antidote, Lucifer killing Uriel to save her, Candy was just about Lucifer protecting Chloe from himself, she would understand just how much Lucifer loves her.

\- If Chloe knew about her status as a literal miracle ordained by God, she would see that she and Lucifer were meant to be soulmates (after a potential freakout).

Now, to be clear, I’m not saying that these impulses are necessarily coming from an insane place. All of this seems to be rooted in what is the bedrock of a successful romantic relationship; communication. If Lucifer and Chloe had been communicating more clearly in Seasons 1-3, a lot of their issues would, if not go away, at least be something they could face together as a united front. Granted, that wouldn’t be much of a TV show, now would it?

But what’s bugging me is an underlying assumption that’s being pretty throughly ignored. If Chloe knew everything that Lucifer had done for her, she would be grateful and would accept Lucifer entirely because he has proved that he loves her.

Stop the bus!

Where have we heard this trope before? I’ll give you a hint - it’s in a lot of places, but it’s very prevalent in romance. The Nice Guy who does Things for the object of his affection, who only learns to return that affection once she knows of his sacrifice and/or actions.

Here’s the TV Tropes page, if you want a refresher. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NiceGuy

Um, guys? We do remember who our main character is, right? The Devil is very definitely not a nice guy. Who remembers Chloe’s description of him when she’s confronting him in 1x06 about his container being stolen?

Actually, let’s take a closer look at 1x06 for a minute. All italics are mine.

Chloe: “For the first time, I don’t think you’re being honest with me. You have this _**mysterious**_ container that was stolen - that someone was willing to _**kill**_ for. You make _**shady deals with shady people**_. You’re _**violent**_ , your personal records only go back five years and the books from Lux are way too clean.”

This is 100% accurate, everyone. We’ve seen Lucifer engage in every bit of the behavior Chloe accuses him of here. He may not lie to her (as he goes on to reassure her further into the scene), but that doesn’t prevent him from obfuscating the truth. And that’s exactly what he does within this very scene - he tells her two truths about what’s in the container (”a gift from my father”, “Russian dolls”) while concealing what’s actually been stolen (his wings). 

We’ve seen Lucifer be violent before too - before it’s always been pointed at people who we, as the audience, have little to no sympathy for such as the sleazy football agent Lucifer throws through the glass or Malcom’s drunk partner in the bar. Here in 1x06, though, we see this illustrated twice and not to Lucifer’s benefit. 

The first is only a scene later as he quite literally hunts their suspect down through the warehouse, taunting him as he stalks his prey, only for the man to throw himself off the building when Lucifer finally catches up with him and flashes his Devil face. This is already pretty damn disturbing and is demonstrably unnecessary. The police have recovered the container without Lucifer needing to catch and question the man, which makes their suspect’s death not only gratuitous but also means that the man can’t stand trial for shooting the head of the biker gang. Still, Renny was just a “bad guy,” right?

The second time within 1x06 that we see Lucifer become violent is his therapy session with Linda, when she attempts to break through to him with the use of his Father’s name for him - Samael. In response, he screams at her and punches a hole straight through her wall and out the other side in a completely uncontrolled display of celestial strength.

These are important early character moments for Lucifer. They're there to establish that Lucifer is not evil. You can see how disturbed he is when Renny throws himself off the building, his shocked, quiet line to Chloe “I couldn’t stop him.” It never occurred to him that someone might kill himself out of fear of him. And he knows, even in that moment, that his behavior in Linda’s office is completely out of line - he glances at her just once before he runs away and doesn’t go back to therapy until episode 8. 

And this is only a single episode in the first season, people. Lucifer demonstrates over and over that he is not a nice man to the world in general. Part of what makes Lucifer compelling is that we see him begin to offer kindness to others as his own capacity to feel and deal with his own emotions expands.

But a Nice Guy? The trope of the Nice Guy is based on a contractual obligation - I perform acts of service for the object of my affection and in return I receive love/sex/acceptance.  
  
Huh. I know where I’ve seen favors before in this show and it’s also not something Lucifer does out of kindness.

Do we really think Lucifer wanted Chloe to accept him out of a sense of obligation for everything he’s done for her? As if all of his actions in Seasons 1-3 were some kind of favor that is to be repaid with Chloe’s love? This is not to say that some of these major plot events won’t come up in any potential future seasons, but I suspect that if Chloe is brought up to speed on these events they will be connected to a current issue/plot point that’s much more pressing than comforting herself or Lucifer. 

Also, we the fans are able to re-watch and remember what happened. Chloe’s own memories are probably much fuzzier - some major events will stand out, but the fine details are probably pretty faded. Don’t believe me? How well do you remember the details of a work conversation you had a year ago? A month ago? Heck, how about yesterday? After all, to quote Chloe Decker herself, “Going backwards is not good for anyone.” 

In short, Chloe doesn’t need a recap. She already knows how much Lucifer loves her and some of these events that people keep bringing up are far more likely to cause conflict than understanding if they’re ever brought to her attention. Killing Uriel may very well have been justifiable homicide, given that he was actively threatening to kill two other people, but the idea of presenting a fratricide as proof of love would send most sane people run screaming in the opposite direction, let alone a **_homicide detective_**. Lucifer dying/killing himself to get to Hell? That’s even worse. 

And let’s not get started on the idea of Lucifer needing to hurt her in order to protect her, (thank you, Candy). The show runners have already teased the idea of Chloe finding out her miracle status, so this one is the most likely past event to come up, I suspect. So, show of hands, who thinks Chloe would be beyond pissed?

Chloe Decker owes Lucifer Morningstar absolutely nothing. That’s what makes her acceptance and love of him so powerful. To introduce these past events is to allow the specter of obligation to color every single interaction they’ve had - along with guilt. These speculations are clearly made with the very best of intentions, in the name of open communication.

But we all know where good intentions and guilt lead, now don’t we?


End file.
